I've been covering the video game space for 20 years for outlets like The Washington Post, Reuters, CNET, AOL, Wired Magazine, Yahoo!, Entertainment Weekly, NBC, Variety, Maxim, EGM, and ESPN. I serve as EIC of GamerHub.tv and co-founder of GamerHub Content Network, a video game and technology video syndication network that works with Tribune and DBG to syndicate game videos and editorial around the world. I also cover games for outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, IGN, Geek Monthly, CNN, DigitalTrends and PrimaGames.

It was a devastating weekend at the Hollywood box office, and analysts said Hurricane Sandy can only be blamed for about 10 percent of the damage. While Open Road Entertainment’s Silent Hill: Revelation performed a lot better than The Wachowskis’ Cloud Atlas, especially when figuring in budget; the movie did bomb at theaters with an $8 million opening. That number was off 60 percent when compared to the original Silent Hill’s $20.1 million opening domestic haul six years ago. But given the sequel’s reported $20 million production budget, the movie, which has yet to premiere overseas, should end up making money when all is said and done (even before the lucrative home entertainment and broadcast rights).

Producer Samuel Hadida, who has been behind the Silent Hill and Resident Evil movie franchises, believes there’s a lot left to explore in Capcom’s bestselling game franchise. With Resident Evil 6 a global gaming blockbuster, the latest Resident Evil: Retribution 3D movie earned over $217 million at the box office. Hadida talks about the future of the Resident Evil movie franchise, and Silent Hill, in this exclusive interview.

Resident Evil is now the longest running and most successful video game-to-movie adaptation ever. What do you think the key to that Sony Pictures film franchise’s success?

I think that the success has been that the same people behind the franchise have kept doing all these movies over 10 years. Paul Anderson has been the writer that has kept the evolution of the characters and he has added all the elements that blend from the games to the movies. The same producer and the team and the people behind the films has kept the energy of moving along with success.

Paul told me he’s already mapping out a sixth film. How far do you see this franchise being able to go into the future?

It will go another one, another two, and then I’m sure it will be rebooted. Spider-Man did. Why not Resident Evil? You can come back to the original idea, the start of everything. You can take out characters. You can evolve. You can live with this world very easily. You know, characters were dead and they are still here.

Does it help that Capcom keeps making new Resident Evil games?

Absolutely, because that means that the world of gamers is very excited and they love this franchise and it grow and grows. The more it grows, the more the buzz on the movies and all around the video games and comic books and merchandizing. It’s a whole universe that Capcom has created that we’re also part of it.

What are your thoughts on how Konami has developed the Silent Hill game franchise?

When we bought Silent Hill there were only two games and the third one was just coming out when we began to adapt the movie. Now there is an entire collection and there is more universe around the town of Silent Hill. That’s important because there is a gathering of fans working toward the idea of having and buying and keeping this universe for themselves. That’s the secret, that they are very heavy fans…where they’re looking in the trash to see the pages of the script and looking where we are shooting to see the monsters. They are very active. You have to give this fan base what they want. You have to make a movie that they like, but that also entertains the people that don’t know about the video games.

The Resident Evil movies have seen a steady flow of sequels. Why was there such a gap between the two Silent Hill movie releases?

In fact, it was a very good exercise because this one is mainly based on the idea of the Silent Hill 3 game. In this one, the character from the movie, Heather, has grown up and there’s been a gap of six years. We took time to make the sequel to the movie because we wanted to have the same energy as the game and have a feeling that time has passed for this character. Silent Hill is a town where people are lost souls and now you can continue to create any story that you want. In the new game, there is a prisoner coming to the town and they’re hunted by policemen because they’ve escaped and they are going to meet monsters and everything. For us, it was more about continuity and to bring things for the people that has not seen the first one a completely new universe. They can just sit and meet a girl that is now 18 who’s out to find her dad, who’s been abducted by people. But Silent Hill wants her back, and if you know what happened in the first one, you know why they want her back. So there’s an extra layer for gamers and people who watched the original film.

The last two Resident Evil movies and now the new Silent Hill movie are 3D. What do you feel that adds to video game adaptations?

In terms of what happened with Resident Evil, it’s very much going into the action genre. With the action movies you are entertained by all the feelings, all the action, all the atmosphere and it’s very cool to be in this universe, while you are fighting with monsters and the undead and everything. In Silent Hill, we wanted the people to feel the fear. I remember when we played the video game in the beginning, it was really scary. Your own fears are multiplied by the 3D because you feel like everything is more real than if it’s in 2D. It adds another layer to the universe. We wanted to give the impression that the reality is normal when you feel the fog and you feel the ashes coming in, you feel the 3D. You feel like you’re part of the universe. When everything comes together and there is a darkness, you want to fear the feelings that you’re in another place. We achieved this aesthetically on the first movie, but this extra dimension gives you this dimension of a parallel universe that the 3D can bring you back.

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Well,the first Resident Evil movie was the best one. But then it started a gradual downfall!!! Having just seen the recent one… I think it sucked.Trying to mix a movie/video game into the same concept is rediculous, …..sorry Milla!!!So the last Rezy game i purchased quit a few years ago….sucked because i had to log into Windows Live.After taking a break from it i thought i would give it ago again,and i couldn’t even get it to run!!! Now the previous Silent Hill (2006 i believe) was a great movie and damn right scary.. nurses!!. but then it got halfway through the movie,the church scene,and the rest of the movie …well…sucked.So this new release looks very good but i guess i will just have to wait and see.The thing that needs to be done here is not release a movie that appeals to both gamer and movie watcher but to just the gamer!!!!It is the gamer that is witness to the true horror (lights out and sound up with the cool music that Silent Hill!!) and not the person watching the movie. As i said, the first half of the Silent Hill movie was the best part …..that is because it was the part that stuck with the game!! Anyways,i just want to know when the next Silent Hill game, for PC,will be coming out and i think it would pay off to make this game a First Person…. Thank You

Resident Evil movies need to fucking stop. He and every one else on the crew need to seriously go die for ruining everything the game made. Anyone who actually likes the movies obviously isn’t a fan of the games, or is just retarded.

Both movie adaptations are terrible, the only reason they seemingly make so much in the box office is because the movies are made so cheap. It’s like all the terrible batman movies that were made, before someone like Christopher Nolan came along and said these movie adaptation sucks, I’m going to do this movie justice and make way more money by making it actually good. They need new producers, director, studio and cast members. Samuel Hadida and henchmen are just dragging these franchises name through the mud.

jona phetsavanh is right. Resident evil movies= garbage. personaly the original Silent hill movie is one of my favorites. The whole stoy was pretty sick with Alessa and even the creatures were terrifying. verry well done. BUT THEN i seen the sequel Silent hill revelations and it completely destroyed it for me. completely butchered the whole story from the first one. Verry disappointed they should of just left it alone. Silent hill revelations was just garbage i couldn’t wait 4 it to end. “The movie producers are dragging these franchises names through mud” couldn’t agree more

The original Silent Hill nailed practically everything that makes the games so good and successfully converted the narrative to celluloid in such a way that even newcomers to the series could watch it as a standalone experience and veteran players could nod “sagely” at Konami’s thankyou post-its scattered (lightly but pertinently) throughout. Ok so Sean Bean’s character was an 11th Hour Add-on by most accounts but one, IMHO, that added to the flow of the film.

When I heard there was to be a sequel I was ecstatic and expected the plot to follow arguably the best game of the series Silent Hill 2 and had already screen-played several scenario’s of how it could be transferred to screen only to hear shortly after that it would be the SH3 Plot-line used. Disappointing but maybe they were saving SH2 for later so, for that reason, forgiveable and at least it would be another chance to prove that Game to Film tie-ins could work.

Wrong, wrong, wrong – they took a winning formula and tied it up in a obfuscating screenplay where the only depth was in the “ooh sparkly” 3D Filmography and a couple of very strangely bewildering performances by Malcolm McDowell and Carrie Ann Moss. Out went the clawing sense of claustrophobia and scene-by-scene tension of SH1 and in came the kind of flimsy schlock horror even Jason Voorhees would have turned his rotting nose up at and side stepped. There were a few (note few) saving graces and the traditionally random Nightmare Fuel characters; Pyramid Head, Wibbly Wobbly WTF’s, Heavly Robed (& Very Mumbly) Clandestine Sect Members the Silent Hill Nurses even if they were added this time round not for the scare factor but, seemingly, more for the leer factor as the amount of cleavage increased proportional to the decrease in menace they had blindly wielded with their scalpels in the first outing.

I left the Cinema that night with the same gut sinking feeling I got after watching Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (from the Nuked Fridge onwards).

If there is going to be a third+ outing for Silent Hill then the screenwriters need to go back to basics and recapture the atmosfear the first delivered in spades and as Harry Mason hints at the end of Revelation “there are more stories in Silent Hill than this one”. I’m still holding out that James Sunderland gets his cue next time round.

If you are an avid fan of the Resident Evil games, then you know these movies are an atrocity. I’ve tried to get past the first one but I couldn’t. I am a huge Silent Hill fan and I thought that both of the movies were good but towards the end of the second SH, that they started getting lazy with the story line. Bottom line is.. quit making Resident Evil movies and make more SH movies that follow the game a bit better.. A second SH movie based on the second game would be the most awesome movie to date!

Well, the first Resident Evil was good, same as Silent Hill first movie. Silent Hill Revelations was very poor in all aspects, specially the characters, which was terrible to put new people and forget about the first movie casting. Rose was lost and Harry was looking for his wife and his child. They should had been started from the end of the first movie, not create something different.

Resident Evil was different. The first movie was very intense, followed by the second movie, which starts exactly where the first one finished. That´s why the movie has more boxoffice.

Silent Hill Revelations lost itself since the first minute until the credits. They should burn this movie and hire someone to fix this movie franchise

So I watched Silent hill and Silent hill revalation, I loved them both they were great, but what im wondering is are they making another movie after silent hill revelation and if so do you know when it will be out?

I am just here to share what i have found. The two links below are storylines for Resident Evil 6 (part 1 and Part 2) i enjoyed the two stories. Good reboot. https://app.box.com/s/32yniqx4gxhqrwm4ejjm https://app.box.com/s/gv40j5vllym3cjfw2vus Happy to share. This is from www.facebook.com/RE6MOVIE Go Alice!!!

I am just here to share what i have found. A two storylines of Resident Evil 6 (part 1 and 2). I enjoyed them. Good reboot. Here are the links below. https://app.box.com/s/32yniqx4gxhqrwm4ejjm https://app.box.com/s/gv40j5vllym3cjfw2vus I just got it at www.facebook.com/RE6MOVIE. Happy to share.